I’m taking a break from meatless life to bring you a quick and easy recipe for Pasta With Spicy ‘Nduja-Tomato Sauce from Serious Eats. When I cook on the weekends, it often does include meat, but this is the first time I have cooked with ‘Nduja. I’m not sure if it true in the rest of the world, but in Hong Kong, ‘Nduja is a hot ingredient right now. Pretty much every Italian restaurant has it on the menu, and our family orders whatever pasta or pizza has it because we can’t resist a sausage with Calabrian chilis! Two of our favorites are the Pizza Project’s ‘Nduja pizza and the Orecchiette with ‘Nduja that Pirata often has on the menu, which is what I tried to replicate here.
This was a very spur of the moment meal that came out of an unplanned trip to Horizon Plaza on a rainy Saturday. As Keelin and I wandered aimlessly down from the 28th floor, we stopped in Pacific Gourmet right before we left and found fresh Orecchiette and N’duja and it seemed like it was meant to be that we buy them and figure out what to do with them later. As we were too tired to cook when we got home and ordered pizza from Amalfitana Central instead (YUM!), I made an exception to my no cooking on Sunday night rule and made this pasta. Other than the dishes, it was almost as easy as takeout! 😂
I stayed pretty true to the recipe, other than using about 3/4 of a can of blended whole tomatoes from a large can instead of the passata. I didn’t feel like I had to cook the tomatoes as long as was called for in the recipe. I also added another big spoonful of Nduja as well and I wasn’t sorry about that! I scooped the pasta out of the pot with a spider and didn’t have to add any extra pasta water, but my pasta was fresh and pretty cooked at the point I took it out, so if you use dry pasta and it is underdone when it goes into the sauce, it might be necessary to add some pasta water. Overall, a quick and relatively easy restaurant quality dish that you can make at home. We definitely will be making this again, perhaps next time with a touch of cream…Here is the recipe again in case you want to put it on the menu this week!
